Toshiba offering discounts for old laptops in UK

Toshiba is attempting to boost sales of its new laptops while at the same time offering a recycling service with a new trade-in offer.

When buying a new Toshiba Windows 7 laptop UK customers now have the option to trade-in any old laptop. A form is available online for supplying details of the old laptop spec and condition which Toshiba then uses to give you a trade-in price of up to £150 (US$245). If you accept the offer then the money will form a discount off your new laptop purchase. Toshiba will then come and collect the old machine promising to safely wipe the data from it and recycle the parts. The collection is carried out by Toshiba partner company Tier 1 Asset and happens within 10 days of purchase.

Toshiba state that any laptop received through the scheme will have its data wiped using, “government approved data wiping software”. Every effort will then be made to reuse the laptop if its condition allows for this, otherwise, Toshiba state it will dispose of the machine without any parts ending up in a land-fill.

The trade-in system isn’t without its faults though, as PC Pro reports, putting in fairly new laptop details returns the message that your laptop isn’t worth anything. This is a problem Toshiba are investigating and should fix promptly.

As an experiment I put in the details of a laptop I still use (Lenovo R50e, Pentium-M, 768MB RAM, DVD/CD-RW, 14″ screen, as new condition) and Toshiba offered me £64 ($93) for it. As a fully-functioning laptop it’s better to keep it than accept such a low offer, but if you can get that for a machine that has become unusable then its probably worthwhile.

The fact Toshiba collect and recycle does make this a offer worth considering if you have a laptop lying around you will never use again. If it’s a capable machine then consider giving it to a friend or relative instead, and there are a few charities about that will take old machines and refurbish them for use elsewhere.

I’m not sure if Toshiba intend to roll out this trade-in offer in other markets, or if indeed it has already. If it boosts sales of new laptops though, I’m sure it will be considered.